Chapter Text
Harry had a troubled night's sleep. His parents wove in and out of his dreams, never speaking, Mrs. Weasley sobbed over Kreacher's dead body, watched by Ron, Y/n and Hermione who were wearing crowns, and yet again Harry found himself walking down a corridor ending in a locked door. He awoke abruptly with his scar prickling to find Ron already dressed and talking to him.
" ...better hurry up, Mums going ballistic, she says we're going to miss the train..."
Harry sat up to see Y/n was back in their room dressed in clothes too.
There was a lot of commotion in the house. Fred and George had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs to save the bother of carrying them, with the result that they had hurtled straight into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs into the hall, Mrs. Black and Mrs. Weasley were both screaming at the top of their voices.
"COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS..."
"FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS..."
Hermione came hurrying into the room looking flustered, just as Harry was putting on his trainers. Hedwig was swaying on her shoulder, and she was carrying a squirming Crookshanks in her arms.
"Mum and Dad just sent Hedwig back." the owl fluttered obligingly over and perched on top of her cage. "Are you ready yet?"
"Nearly..." Harry asked, shoving on his glasses.
"Is Ginny all right?" Y/n asked.
"Mrs. Weasley's patched her up." said Hermione. "But now Mad-Eye's complaining that we can't leave unless Sturgis Podmore's here, otherwise the guard will be one short."
"Guard?" said Harry. "We have to go to King's Cross with a guard?"
"You have to go to King's Cross with a guard." Hermione corrected him.
"Why?" said Harry irritably. "I thought Voldemort was supposed to be lying low, or are you telling me he's going to jump out from behind a dustbin to try and do me in."
"I don't know, it's just what Mad-Eye says." said Hermione distractedly, looking at her watch. "But if we don't leave soon we're definitely going to miss the train..."
"WILL YOU LOT GET DOWN HERE NOW, PLEASE!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed and Hermione jumped as though scalded and hurried out of the room.
"I will see you two downstairs." Y/n said as he grabbed his trunk handle with Noctis in her cage secured on top, and set off downstairs after Hermione, dragging his trunk.
Mrs. Black's portrait was howling with rage but nobody was bothering to close the curtains over her, all the noise in the hall was bound to rouse her again, anyway.
Harry came down soon after Y/n and Mrs Weasley began to give out a plan of sorts.
"Hermione, Arthur's waiting for you and Ron in the kitchen meanwhile Harry, Y/n, you're to come with me and Tonks." shouted Mrs. Weasley over the repeated screeches of "MUDBLOODS! SCUM! CREATURES OF DIRT!"
"I suppose I will see you at the station then..." Y/n said to Hermione.
"Stay safe." Hermione said as she kissed his cheek.
"I will, and you too." Y/n nodded as he watched Hermione then leave for the kitchen.
"Y/n, Harry leave your trunks, owl and cat." Mrs Weasley began again now. "Alastor's going to deal with the luggage... Oh, for heavens sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!"
A bearlike black dog had appeared at Harry's side as he was clambering over the various trunks cluttering the hall to get to Mrs. Weasley.
"Oh honestly..." said Mrs. Weasley despairingly. "Well, on your own head be it!"
"Well, If Sirius is doing it..." Y/n said closing his eyes and turning into a black cat.
"Oh for goodness sakes!" Mrs Weasley cried losing patience.
The Black dog looked down at the cat with a tilted head and started to circle around it before it began to happily wag it's tail.
Mrs Weasley wrenched open the front door and stepped out into the weak September sunlight. Harry, the cat and the dog followed her. The door slammed behind them and Mrs. Black's screeches were cut off instantly.
"Where's Tonks?" Harry said, looking round as they went down the stone steps of number twelve, which vanished the moment they reached the pavement.
"She's waiting for us just up here." said Mrs. Weasley stiffly, averting her eyes from the lolloping black cat and dog on either side of Harry.
An old woman greeted them on the corner. She had tightly curled grey hair and wore a purple hat shaped like a pork pie.
"Wotcher, Harry." she said, winking. "Wait where's Y/n?"
The cat just meowed.
"Oh nice one." Tonks grinned at it. "We better hurry up, hadn't we, Molly?" she then added, checking her watch.
"I know, I know." moaned Mrs. Weasley, lengthening her stride. "But Mad-Eye wanted to wait for Sturgis...If only Arthur could have got us cars from the Ministry again...but Fudge won't let him borrow so much as an empty ink bottle these days. How can Muggles stand travelling without magic?"
But the great black dog gave a joyful bark and gambolled around them, snapping at pigeons and playfully chasing the cat. Harry couldn't help laughing as he watched Sirius and Y/n play, Sirius had been trapped inside for a very long time. Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips in an almost Aunt Petunia-ish way at the two.
It took them twenty minutes to reach King's Cross on foot and nothing more eventful happened during that time than Sirius scaring a couple of cats for Harry's entertainment only stopping when Y/n leapt on his back. Once inside the station they lingered casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten until the coast was clear, then each of them leaned against it in turn and fell easily through on to platform nine and three-quarters, where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families.
"I hope the others make it in time." said Mrs. Weasley anxiously, staring behind her at the wrought-iron arch spanning the platform, through which new arrivals would come.
"Nice dog, Harry!" called a tall boy with dreadlocks.
"Thanks, Lee." said Harry, grinning, as Sirius wagged his tail frantically.
"Oh good." said Mrs. Weasley, sounding relieved. "Here's Alastor with the luggage, look..."
A porter's cap pulled low over his mismatched eyes, Moody came limping through the archway pushing a trolley loaded with their trunks.
"All okay." he muttered to Mrs. Weasley and Tonks. "Don't think we were followed..."
Seconds later, Mr. Weasley emerged on to the platform with Ron and Hermione. They had almost unloaded Moody's luggage trolley onto the train when Fred, George, and Ginny turned up with Lupin.
"No trouble?" growled Moody.
"Nothing." said Lupin.
"I'll still be reporting Sturgis to Dumbledore." said Moody. "That's the second time he's not turned up in a week. Getting as unreliable as Mundungus."
"Well, look after yourselves." said Lupin, begging to shake hands all round but he noticed Y/n was missing now and began to look around until he spotted black cat on the dog's shoulder. "Sirius, don't tell me you told him how to do that ..." He said sternly.
The dog just wagged his tail proudly and the cat meowed.
"Is that the boy?" Moody asked. "Clever way of moving undetected. We should have Potter learn to become an Animagus too."
"That was very foolhardy undertaking such a dangerous piece of magic alone." Lupin said looking down at the cat. "But, It's a yielded a very good result." He then complimented the cat who meowed and held out a paw to shake.
Lupin looked around then crouched down to shake the cats paw.
"As ever you impress me Y/n." He started quietly. "But try to have a quiet year this year and be careful." Lupin just saw the cat nod it's head then bow it in respect.
Lupin reached Harry last now and gave him a clap on the shoulder. "You too, Harry. Be careful."
"Yeah, keep your head down and your eyes peeled." said Moody, shaking Harry's hand too. "And don't forget, all of you...careful what you put in writing. If in doubt, don't put it in a letter at all."
"It's been great meeting all of you." said Tonks, hugging Hermione and Ginny before turning to the cat. "Oh...come here it's too cute to resist." She said and quickly scooped the cat up who protested and she laughed before handing out the cat to Hermione. "Here, I think this belongs to you."
Hermione just took the cat and held it in her arms. "I can't believe you went out in public like this what were you thinking!?" She asked that cat.
The cat just meowed and began to purr.
"We'll see you soon, I expect." Tonks laughed now.
A warning whistle sounded and the students still on the platform started hurrying onto the train.
"Quick, quick." said Mrs. Weasley distractedly, hugging them at random, accidently squishing Y/n when she hugged Hermione. "Write...Be good...If you've forgotten anything we'll send it on... Onto the train, now, hurry."
For one brief moment, the great black dog reared onto its hind legs and placed its front paws on Harry's shoulders, but Mrs. Weasley shoved Harry away towards the train door, hissing. "For heaven's sake, act more like a dog, Sirius!"
"See you!" Harry called out of the open window as the train began to move, while Ron and Ginny waved beside him. The figures of Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley shrank rapidly but the black dog was bounding alongside the window, wagging its tail, blurred people on the platform were laughing to see it chasing the train, then they rounded a bend, and Sirius was gone.
"He shouldn't have come with us." said Hermione in a worried voice.
"Oh, lighten up." said Ron. "He hasn't seen daylight for months, poor bloke."
"Well." said Fred, clapping his hands together. "Can't stand around chatting all day, we've got business to discuss with Lee. See you later." and he and George disappeared down the corridor to the right.
The train was gathering still more speed, so that the houses outside the window flashed past, and they swayed where they stood.
"Shall we go and find a compartment, then?" Harry asked.
Ron and Hermione exchanged looks.
"Er..." said Ron.
'We're...well...Ron and I are supposed to go into the prefect carriage." Hermione said awkwardly.
Ron wasn't looking at Harry, he seemed to have become intensely interested in the fingernails on his left hand.
"Oh." said Harry. "Right. Fine."
"I don't think we'll have to stay there all journey." said Hermione quickly. "Our letters said we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Girl and then patrol the corridors from time to time."
"Fine." said Harry again. "Well, I...I might see you later, then."
"Yeah, definitely." said Ron, casting a shifty, anxious look at Harry. "It's a pain having to go down there, I'd rather...but we have to...I mean, I'm not enjoying it, I'm not Percy." he finished defiantly.
The cat just meowed now.
"No, you are not coming with me..." Hermione said sternly.
Again it meowed.
"Because...this was supposed to be a secret, If you keep this up everyone will know and you will be in big trouble with the Ministry."
The cat stayed silent after that.
"Can you both take him?" Hermione then asked Harry and Ginny.
"Sure." Ginny said as she held out her hands and Hermione passed the cat over, then she and Ron dragged their trunks, Crookshanks, and a caged Pigwidgeon off towards the engine end of the train.
"Come on." Ginny told Harry. "If we get a move on we'll be able to save them places and he can change..."
"Right." said Harry, picking up Hedwig's cage in one hand and the handle of his trunk in the other. They struggled off down the corridor, peering through the glass-panelled doors into the compartments they passed, which were already full. Harry could not help noticing that a lot of people stared back at him with great interest and that several of them nudged their neighbours and pointed him out. After he had met this behaviour in five consecutive carriages he remembered that the Daily Prophet had been telling its readers all summer what a lying show-off he was. He wondered dully whether the people now staring and whispering believed the stories.
In the very last carriage they met Neville Longbottom, Y/n and Harry's fellow fifth-year Gryffindor, his round face shining with the effort of pulling his trunk along and maintaining a one-handed grip on his struggling toad, Trevor.
"Hi, Harry." he panted. "Hi, Ginny...Everywhere's full.. I can't find a seat..,
"What are you talking about?" said Ginny, who had squeezed past Neville to peer into the compartment behind him. "There's room in this one, there's only Loony Love..."
The cat began to growl at Ginny.
"Sorry, Luna Lovegood." Ginny said and the cat stopped.
Neville mumbled something about not wanting to disturb anyone.
"Don't be silly." said Ginny, laughing. "She's all right."
She slid the door open and pulled her trunk inside. Harry and Neville followed.
"Hi, Luna." said Ginny. "Is it okay if we take these seats?"
The girl beside the window looked up. She had straggly, waist-length, dirty-blonde hair, very pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer corks, or that she was reading a magazine upside-down. Her eyes ranged over Neville and came to rest on Harry. She nodded.
"Thanks." said Ginny, smiling at her.
Harry and Neville stowed the three trunks and Hedwig's cage in the luggage rack and sat down with Neville sitting beside Ginny and Harry taking the middle seat on the opposite side. Luna watched them over her upside-down magazine, which was called The Quibbler. She did not seem to need to blink as much as normal humans. She stared and stared at Harry, who wished she didn't.
"Had a good summer, Luna?" Ginny asked.
"Yes." said Luna dreamily, without taking her eyes off Harry. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, Hello again Harry Potter."
"Hello Luna." Harry said feeling awkward with her staring.
Neville chuckled and Luna turned her pale eyes on him instead. "And I don't know who you are."
"I'm nobody." said Neville hurriedly.
"No you're not." said Ginny sharply. "Neville Longbottom...Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."
"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure." said Luna in a singsong voice.
The cat just meowed now and Ginny forgot she had been holding it. "Oh, right. Neville can you make sure the coast is clear?"
Neville just looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "S...Sure." He stuck his head out the compartment and looked both ways before coming back in. "It's all clear."
Ginny just put the cat down on an empty seat opposite Luna now as it began to change back into Y/n. Neville just watched in shock while Luna didn't seem to have much of a reaction at all.
"B..b..but.." Neville began to stammer.
"Hello Neville." Y/n said greeting him.
"Y...Y...Y/n you're a..a.aaani..." Neville began.
"Yes, I am, but I am trusting you not to tell anyone you know. We are friends after all." Y/n stopped him from blurting out his secret.
"Of course." Neville said getting over his initial shock now. "I wish I could do that..."
"And speaking of friends.." Y/n turned his head to Luna now. "Hello again Miss Lovegood."
Luna looked at Y/n properly now. "Hello Y/n Grindelwald." She said in her usual dreamlike voice.
"I am certain I can rely on you to keep my secret as well?" Y/n asked her.
"Of course Y/n Grindelwald." Luna nodded.
"Wonderful, Now will you all excuse me a moment while I fetch Noctis and my trunk." Y/n said leaving the compartment to fetch them.
The train rattled onwards, speeding them out into open country. It was an odd, unsettled sort of day, one moment the carriage was full of sunlight and the next they were passing beneath ominously grey clouds.
"Guess what I got for my birthday?" said Neville.
"Another Remembrall?" said Harry, remembering the marble-like device Neville's grandmother had sent him in an effort to improve his abysmal memory.
"No." said Neville. "I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago...No, look at this."
He dug the hand that was not keeping a firm grip on Trevor into his schoolbag and after a little bit of rummaging pulled out what appeared to be a small grey cactus in a pot, except that it was covered with what looked like boils rather than spines.
"Mimbulus mimbletonia." he said proudly.
"Herbology is not my strongest subject I am afraid Neville so you will have to explain." Y/n said as he looked at the plant that was pulsating like an diseased internal organ.
"It's really, really rare." said Neville, beaming. "I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My Great Uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I'm going to see if I can breed from it."
Harry knew that Neville's favourite subject was Herbology, but for the life of him he could not see what he would want with this stunted little plant. "Does it...er...do anything?" he asked.
"Loads of stuff!" said Neville proudly. "It's got an amazing defensive mechanism. Here, hold Trevor for me."
He dumped the toad into Harry's lap and took a quill from his schoolbag. Luna Lovegood's popping eyes appeared over the top of her upside-down magazine again, watching what Neville was doing. Neville held the Mimbulus mimbletonia up to his eyes, his tongue between his teeth, chose his spot, and gave the plant a sharp prod with the tip of his quill.
Liquid squirted from every boil on the plant, thick, stinking, dark green jets of it. They hit the ceiling, the windows, and spattered Luna Lovegood's magazine, Y/n had quickly turned away so that only back of his head and his clothes got sprayed, Ginny, who had flung her arms up in front of her face just in time, merely looked as though she was wearing a slimy green hat, but Harry, whose hands had been busy preventing Trevor's escape, received a faceful. It smelled like rancid manure.
Neville, whose face and torso were also drenched, shook his head to get the worst out of his eyes.
"So sorry!" he gasped. "I haven't tried that before...Didn't realise it would be quite so... D.d..don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous." he added nervously, as Harry spat a mouthful on to the floor.
At that precise moment the door of their compartment slid open.
"Oh...hello, Harry." said a nervous voice. "Um...bad time?"
Harry wiped the lenses of his glasses with his Trevor-free hand. A very pretty girl with long, shiny black hair was standing in the doorway smiling at him, Cho Chang, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.
"Oh...hi." said Harry blankly.
Y/n just turned his head back now and saw that Ginny's expression was rather like Hermione's whenever Fleur Delacour was present or even mentioned.
"Um..." said Cho. "Well...just thought I'd say hello...bye then."
Rather pink in the face, she closed the door and departed. Harry slumped back in his seat and groaned.
"Never mind." said Ginny bracingly. "Look, we can easily get rid of all this." She pulled out her wand. "Scourgify!"
The Stinksap vanished.
"Sorry." said Neville again, in a small voice.
"We all make mistakes Neville." Y/n assured him as he looked out the window.
Ron and Hermione did not turn up for nearly an hour, by which time the food trolley had already gone by. Harry, Y/n, Ginny, and Neville had finished their pumpkin pasties and were busy swapping Chocolate Frog Cards when the compartment door slid open and they walked in, accompanied by Crookshanks and a shrilly hooting Pigwidgeon in his cage.
"I'm starving." said Ron, stowing Pigwidgeon next to Hedwig, grabbing a Chocolate Frog from Harry and throwing himself into the seat next to him. He ripped open the wrapper, bit off the frog's head and leaned back with his eyes closed as though he had had a very exhausting morning.
"Oh, we're a seat short." Hermione noticed.
"I'll just go then. Don't want to be in the way." Neville said moving to get up.
"No need Neville." Ginny quickly said. "Hermione can sit with Y/n." She smiled and Hermione shot her a thunderous look.
"Uh... but Ginny, there is no room left on that seat." Neville pointed out.
"There is on her boyfriend's lap." Ginny said.
"Boyfriend?" Neville repeated confused before it dawned on him. "Oh..." He then looked between Y/n and Hermione.
"Congratulations." Luna Lovegood said peering over her magazine with her normal look.
"Thank you Miss Lovegood." Y/n said feeling slightly put on the spot now. "Well...I am not completely opposed to it." Y/n said looking at Hermione.
"It's only because there are no other seats." She said feeling rather embarrassed and red in the face as she carefully set herself down on Y/n's lap. While they had slept in the same bed together this was their first real outing in public as a couple.
"So...tell us about the prefects." Harry said trying to relieve the tension in the room.
"Well, there are two fifth-year prefects from each house." said Hermione now as she shifted slightly to make herself more comfortable. "Boy and girl from each."
"And guess who's a Slytherin prefect?" Ron grumbled, still with his eyes closed.
"Malfoy." replied Harry at once, certain his worst fear would be confirmed.
"Course." said Ron bitterly, stuffing the rest of the Frog into his mouth and taking another.
"And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson." said Hermione viciously as she started to settle back into Y/n now and he wrapped an arm around her waist. "How she got to be a prefect when she's thicker than a concussed troll..."
"Who are Hufflepuff's?" Harry asked.
"Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott." said Ron thickly.
"And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw." said Hermione.
"You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil." said a vague voice.
Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Ron over the top of The Quibbler. He swallowed his mouthful of Frog.
"Yeah, I know I did." he said, looking mildly surprised.
"She didn't enjoy it very much." Luna informed him. "She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded." she added thoughtfully. "I don't like dancing very much."
She retreated behind The Quibbler again. Ron stared at the cover with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds, then looked around at Ginny for some kind of explanation, but Ginny had stuffed her knuckles in her mouth to stop herself giggling. Ron shook his head, bemused, then checked his watch.
"We're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often." he told Harry, Y/n and Neville. "And we can give out punishments if people are misbehaving. I can't wait to get Crabbe and Goyle for something.."
"You're not supposed to abuse your position, Ron!" said Hermione sharply.
"Yeah, right, because Malfoy won't abuse it at all." said Ron sarcastically.
"So you're going to descend to his level?"
"No, I'm just going to make sure I get his mates before he gets mine."
"For heavens sake, Ron..." Y/n sighed.
"I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing," said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. "I...must...not... look...like... a...baboon's...backside."
Everyone laughed, but nobody laughed harder than Luna Lovegood. She let out a scream of mirth that caused Hedwig to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and both Noctis and Crookshanks leap up into the luggage rack, hissing. Luna laughed so hard that her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs, and onto the floor.
"That was funny!" Her prominent eyes swam with tears as she gasped for breath, staring at Ron.
Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Ron's face and at the ludicrously prolonged laughter of Luna Lovegood, who was rocking backwards and forwards, clutching her sides.
"Are you taking the mickey?" said Ron, frowning at her.
"Baboon's... backside!" she choked, holding her ribs.
Everyone else was watching Luna laughing, but Harry, glancing at the magazine on the floor, noticed something that made him dive for it. Upside-down it had been hard to tell what the picture on the front was, but Harry now realised it was a fairly bad cartoon of Cornelius Fudge, Harry only recognised him because of the lime-green bowler hat. One of Fudge's hands was clenched around a bag of gold, the other hand was throttling a goblin. The cartoon was captioned. 'How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts?'
Beneath this were listed the titles of other articles inside the magazine.
CORRUPTION IN THE QUIDDITCH LEAGUE: How the Tornados are Taking Control
SECRETS OF THE ANCIENT RUINS REVEALED
SIRIUS BLACK: Villain or Victim?
"Can I have a look at this?" Harry asked Luna eagerly.
She nodded, still gazing at Ron, breathless with laughter.
Harry opened the magazine and began to read.
Hermione however was still mad with Y/n's little cat trick. "I still can't believe you were so silly..." She said to him.
"I thought it was rather fun, I have not had a chance to stretch my paws all summer!"
"Y/n!" Hermione said looking at Luna and Neville.
"You can relax Hermione. I trust them and both said they will keep my secret."
"It was still dangerous Y/n if you had been caught..."
"Look, I just thought it would lighten the mood, it has been very tense in the house for the past month and Snuffles was the one who gave me the idea when he came past us, he rather seemed to enjoy himself."
"Just because Snuffles did it doesn't mean it was right...He really shouldn't have come either." Hermione said worried.
"Anything good in there?" Ron as Harry closed the magazine now.
"Of course not." said Hermione scathingly, before Harry could answer. "The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that."
"Excuse me." said Luna, her voice had suddenly lost its dreamy quality. "My father's the editor."
"I...oh." said Hermione, looking embarrassed. "Well...it's got some interesting...I mean, it's quite..."
"I would quit while you are ahead." Y/n quietly advised Hermione.
"I'll have it back, thank you." said Luna coldly, and leaning forwards she snatched it out of Harry's hands. Riffling through it to page fifty-seven, she turned it resolutely upside-down again and disappeared behind it, just as the compartment door opened for the third time.
Y/n turned his head to look around, he had expected this, but that did not make the sight of his scowling brother standing with Draco Malfoy smirking at Harry from between his cronies Crabbe and Goyle any more enjoyable.
"What?" Harry said aggressively, before Malfoy could open his mouth.
"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention." drawled Malfoy, whose sleek blond hair and pointed chin were just like his father's. "You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."
"It does not unfortunately make you any less insufferable." Y/n spoke up. "If you have no business with us then leave at once. You are making a fool of yourself Malfoy, and I have never seen better craftsmanship."
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville laughed. Malfoy's lip curled.
"Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Grindelwald?" he asked.
"Shut up, Malfoy." said Hermione sharply.
"I seem to have touched a nerve." said Malfoy, smirking.
Atticus looked to Y/n and Hermione with a look of disgust. "Just when I thought you had run out of ways to make me sick... dating a filthy mudblood!" He spat.
"That is enough Atticus!" Y/n raised his voice.
"Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line." Malfoy grinned now.
"Get out!" said Hermione, standing up.
Snigg*ring, Malfoy gave Harry a last malicious look and departed, with Atticus. Crabbe and Goyle lumbering along in their wake. Hermione slammed the compartment door behind them and sat back down in Y/n's lap looking at him and then at Harry. The three had registered what Malfoy had said and been just as unnerved by it.
"Chuck us another Frog." said Ron, who had clearly noticed nothing.
They could not talk freely in front of Neville and Luna. He exchanged another nervous look with Hermione, then stared out of the window.
Y/n had thought Sirius coming with Harry to the station was a bit of a laugh, but suddenly it seemed reckless, if not downright dangerous...Hermione had been right...Sirius should not have come and he should not have changed into a cat. What if Mr. Malfoy had noticed the black dog and told Draco? What if he had deduced that the Weasleys, Lupin, Tonks and Moody knew where Sirius was hiding? Or had Malfoy's use of the word 'dogging' been a coincidence?
The weather remained undecided as they traveled farther and farther north. Rain spattered the windows in a half-hearted way, then the sun put in a feeble appearance before clouds drifted over it once more. When darkness fell and lamps came on inside the carriages, Luna rolled up The Quibbler, put it carefully away in her bag and took to staring at everyone in the compartment instead.
Hermione was still sitting comfortably in Y/n's lap, while it had been awkward to begin with they quickly adjusted and found that the closeness made up for the fact they could no longer stay together at night.
Harry with his forehead pressed against the train window, was trying to get a first distant glimpse of Hogwarts, but it was a moonless night and the rain-streaked window was grimy.
"We'd better change." said Hermione at last, and all of them opened their trunks with difficulty and pulled on their school robes. She and Ron pinned their prefect badges carefully to their chests. Harry saw Ron checking his reflection in the black window.
At last, the train began to slow down and they heard the usual racket up and down it as everybody scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled, ready for departure. Ron and Hermione were supposed to supervise all this.
"I need to go for a moment." Hermione said to Y/n and he nodded in understanding.
"We will try to procure a carriage." Y/n said as the two disappeared from the carriage again, leaving him, Harry and the others to look after Crookshanks and Pigwidgeon.
"I'll carry that owl, if you like." said Luna to Harry, reaching out for Pigwidgeon as Neville stowed Trevor carefully in an inside pocket.
"Oh...er...thanks." said Harry, handing her the cage and hoisting Hedwig's more securely into his arms.
"Ginny can you take Crookshanks as I have Noctis." Y/n asked.
"No problem." Ginny said.
They shuffled out of the compartment feeling the first sting of the night air on their faces as they joined the crowd in the corridor. Slowly, they moved towards the doors. Y/n could smell the pine trees that lined the path down to the lake.
Harry stepped down onto the platform and looked around, listening for the familiar call of 'firs' years over 'ere... firs' years...'
But it did not come. Instead, a quite different voice, a brisk female one, was calling out. "First years line up over here, please! All first years to me!"
A lantern came swinging towards Harry and by its light he saw the prominent chin and severe haircut of Professor Grubbly-Plank, the witch who had taken over Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures lessons for a while the previous year.
"Where's Hagrid?" he said out loud.
"I don't know." said Ginny. "But we'd better get out of the way, we're blocking the door."
"Oh, yeah..."
Harry and Y/n became separated from Ginny as they moved off along the platform and out through the station. Jostled by the crowd, Harry squinted through the darkness for a glimpse of Hagrid, he had to be here, Harry had been relying on it...seeing Hagrid again was one of the things he'd been looking forward to most. But there was no sign of him.
"He can't have left." Harry said to Y/n as he shuffled slowly through a narrow doorway onto the road outside with the rest of the crowd. "He's just got a cold or something..."
"We will know soon enough Harry." Y/n said as he looked around for Hermione or Ron but neither of them was anywhere to be seen, he and Harry could not linger as they found themselves shunted forward onto the dark rain-washed road outside Hogsmeade Station.
Here stood the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Harry glanced quickly at them, turned away to keep a lookout for Ron and Hermione, then did a double-take.
"Y/n..." Harry lightly hit his arm.
"What is it Harry?" Y/n asked and turned but he too was surprised by what he saw.
The coaches were no longer horseless. There were creatures standing between the carriage shafts. If he had had to give them a name, he supposed he would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian about them, too. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither, vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister. Harry could not understand why the coaches were being pulled by these horrible horses when they were quite capable of moving along by themselves.
"Where's Pig?" said Ron's voice, right behind Y/n and Harry.
"That Luna girl was carrying him." said Harry, turning quickly, eager to consult Ron about Hagrid. "Where d'you reckon..."
"Hagrid is? I dunno." said Ron, sounding worried. "He'd better be okay..."
A short distance away, Draco and Atticus, followed by a small gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson, were pushing some timid-looking second-years out of the way so that he and his friends could get a coach to themselves. Seconds later, Hermione emerged panting from the crowd.
"Malfoy was being absolutely foul to a first-year back there. I swear I'm going to report him, he's only had his badge three minutes and he's using it to bully people worse than ever...Where's Crookshanks?"
"Ginny's got him." said Harry. "There she is..." Ginny had just emerged from the crowd, clutching a squirming Crookshanks.
"Thanks." said Hermione, relieving Ginny of the cat and moving to stand with Y/n who was still staring at the carriages. "Come on, let's get a carriage together before they all fill up."
"I haven't got Pig yet!" Ron said, but Hermione had slipped her hand into Y/n's and was already heading off with him toward the nearest unoccupied coach.
Y/n was walking hand in hand with Hermione as he carried Noctis still looking at the black fleshless creatures in front of the carriage they soon stopped in front of. He knew what the creatures were instantly having read about them in his first year. But he thought it best not to mention it to Harry for now on their first day back. He climbed into the carriage and sat down next to Hermione and just rested his head on her shoulder stroking Noctis somberly.
"Someone is getting more affectionate." Ginny teased but Hermione knew that something must have been bothering him.
Harry had remained behind with Ron.
"What are those things, d'you reckon?" he asked Ron, nodding at the horrible horses as the other students surged past them.
"What things?"
"Those hor.."
Luna appeared holding Pigwidgeon's cage in her arms, the tiny owl was twittering excitedly as usual.
"Here you are." she said. "He's a sweet little owl, isn't he?"
"Er...yeah...he's all right." said Ron gruffly. "Well, come on then, let's get in... What were you saying, Harry?'
"I was saying, what are those horse things?" Harry said, as he, Ron, and Luna made for the carriage in which Y/n, Hermione and Ginny were already sitting.
"What horse things?" Ron said confused.
"The horse things pulling the carriages!" said Harry impatiently. They were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one, it was watching them with empty white eyes.
Ron, however, gave Harry a perplexed look. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about...look!" Harry grabbed Ron's arm and wheeled him about so that he was face to face with the winged horse.
Ron stared straight at it for a second, then looked back at Harry. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"At the...there, between the shafts! Harnessed to the coach! It's right there in front..." But as Ron continued to look bemused, a strange thought occurred to Harry. "Can't . . . can't you see them?"
"See what?" Ron asked.
"Can't you see what's pulling the carriages?" Harry said.
Ron looked seriously alarmed now. "Are you feeling all right, Harry?"
"I...yeah..." Harry felt utterly bewildered. The horse was there in front of him, gleaming solidly in the dim light issuing from the station windows behind them, vapour rising from its nostrils in the chilly night air. Yet, unless Ron was faking, and it was a very feeble joke if he was...Ron could not see it at all.
"Shall we get in, then?" said Ron uncertainly, looking at Harry as though worried about him.
"Yeah." said Harry. '"Yeah, go on..."
"It's all right." said a dreamy voice from beside Harry as Ron vanished into the coach's dark interior. "You're not going mad or anything. I can see them, too..."
"Can you?'" said Harry desperately, turning to Luna. He could see the bat-winged horses reflected in her wide silvery eyes.
"Oh, yes." said Luna. "I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. They've always pulled the carriages. Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am."
Smiling faintly, she climbed into the musty interior of the carriage after Ron. Not altogether reassured, Harry followed her.
Harry did not want to tell the others that he and Luna were having the same hallucination, if that was what it was, so he said nothing more about the horses as he sat down inside the carriage and slammed the door behind him. Nevertheless, he could not help watching the silhouettes of the horses moving beyond the window.
"Did everyone see that Grubbly-Plank woman?" asked Ginny. "What's she doing back here? Hagrid can't have left, can he?"
"I'll be quite glad if he has." said Luna. "He isn't a very good teacher, is he?"
"Yes, he is!" said Harry, Ron and Ginny angrily.
Harry glared at Y/n and Hermione. She cleared her throat and quickly said. '"Erm...yes...he's very good."
"Well, we in Ravenclaw think he's a bit of a joke." said Luna, unfazed.
"You've got a rubbish sense of humour then." Ron snapped, as the wheels below them creaked into motion.
"Miss Lovegood..." Y/n finally spoke up but did not move his head. "While I may understand why you find Hagrid's lessons to be unsatisfactory he is one of kindest people we know. He might be strange but he is a loyal friend who is as sensitive as the rest of us. He works hard to try and make his lessons entertaining, even if he still is learning on the job. In the same way you did not like how Hermione insulted your fathers newspaper, we do not like it when you insult our friend."
Luna stayed quiet now and just and pondered on what Y/n said curiously now.
Rattling and swaying, the carriages moved in convoy up the road. When they passed between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, Harry leaned forwards to try and see whether there were any lights on in Hagrid's cabin by the Forbidden Forest, but the grounds were in complete darkness. Hogwarts Castle, however, loomed ever closer, a towering mass of turrets, jet black against the dark sky, here and there a window blazing fiery bright above them.
The carriages jingled to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the oak front doors and Harry got out of the carriage first. He turned again to look for lit windows down by the Forest, but there was definitely no sign of life within Hagrid's cabin. Unwillingly, because he had half-hoped they would have vanished, he turned his eyes instead upon the strange, skeletal creatures standing quietly in the chill night air, their blank white eyes gleaming.
"I can also see them." Y/n said from beside Harry now and Harry turned quickly to look at him
"You can?" Harry asked him and Harry felt better that someone he classed as sane could see them as well.
"Are you two coming or what?" said Ron beside him.
"Oh...yeah." said Harry quickly and they joined the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
The Entrance Hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.
The four long house tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. Y/n noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as he and Harry passed. He had never been popular outside his group of friends and the Quidditch team but he did not care, He was a Grindelwald. He knew to expect a warm welcome would be farcical.
Luna drifted away from them at the Ravenclaw table. The moment they reached Gryffindor's, Ginny was hailed by some fellow fourth-years and left to sit with them, Harry, Ron, Y/n , Hermione and Neville found seats together about halfway down the table between Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor house ghost, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the last two of whom gave Harry airy, overly-friendly greetings that made him quite sure they had stopped talking about him a split second before. He had more important things to worry about, however for he was looking over the students' heads to the staff table that ran along the top wall of the Hall.
"He's not there."
Ron, Y/n and Hermione scanned the staff table too, though there was no real need. Hagrid's size made him instantly obvious in any lineup.
"He can't have left." said Ron, sounding slightly anxious.
"Of course he hasn't." said Harry firmly.
"Where could he be then?" Y/n wondered.
"You don't think he's... hurt, or anything, do you?" said Hermione uneasily.
"No." said Harry at once.
"But where is he, then?"
There was a pause, then Harry said very quietly, so that Neville, Parvati and Lavender could not hear. "Maybe he's not back yet. You know...from his mission...the thing he was doing over the summer for Dumbledore."
"Yeah... yeah, that'll be it." said Ron, sounding reassured, but Hermione bit her lip, looking up and down the staff table as though hoping for some conclusive explanation of Hagrid's absence.
"Who's that?" she said sharply, pointing towards the middle of the staff table.
Y/n's eyes followed hers. They lit first upon Professor Dumbledore, sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the centre of the long staff table, wearing deep-purple robes scattered with silvery stars and a matching hat. Dumbledore's head was inclined towards the woman sitting next to him, who was talking into his ear. She looked, Y/n thought, like somebody's maiden aunt, squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. Then she turned her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet and he saw a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent, pouchy eyes.
"It's that Umbridge woman!" Harry suddenly cried.
"Who?" said Hermione.
"The woman you told us was at your hearing?" Y/n asked worried.
"Yeah, she works for Fudge!" Harry said.
"Nice cardigan." said Ron, smirking.
"She works for Fudge!" Hermione repeated, frowning. "What on earth's she doing here, then?"
"Dunno..." Harry said.
"Whatever the reason is, it cannot be good. You do not think..." Y/n trailed off.
Hermione scanned the staff table, her eyes narrowed. "No." she muttered and looked at Y/n both seeming to have reached the same thought. "No, surely not..."
"Regrettably I think so..." Y/n said now frowning himself. "It is a good thing I asked Mrs Weasley for those extra books."
Harry did not understand what they were talking about but did not ask, his attention had been caught by Professor Grubbly-Plank who had just appeared behind the staff table. She worked her way along to the very end and took the seat that ought to have been Hagrid's. That meant the first-years must have crossed the lake and reached the castle, and sure enough, a few seconds later, the doors from the Entrance Hall opened. A long line of scared-looking first-years entered, led by Professor McGonagall, who was carrying a stool on which sat an ancient wizards hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim.
The buzz of talk in the Great Hall faded away. The first-years lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and Professor McGonagall placed the stool carefully in front of them, then stood back.
The first-years' faces glowed palely in the candlelight. A small boy right in the middle of the row looked as though he was trembling. Harry recalled, fleetingly, how terrified he had felt when he had stood there, waiting for the unknown test that would determine to which house he belonged.
The whole school waited with bated breath. Then the rip near the hat's brim opened wide like a mouth and the Sorting Hat burst into song.
In times of old when I was new
And Hogwarts barely started
The founders of our noble school
Thought never to be parted:
United by a common goal,
They had the self same yearning
To make the world's best magic school
And pass along their learning.
'Together we will build and teach!'
The four good friends decided
And never did they dream that they
Might some day be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere
As Slytherin and Gryffindor?
Unless it was the second pair
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong?
How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell
The whole sad, sorry tale.
Said Slytherin, 'We'll teach just those Whose ancestry is purest.'
Said Ravenclaw, 'We'll teach those whose Intelligence is surest.'
Said Gryffindor, 'We'll teach all those with brave deeds to their name.'
Said Hufflepuff, 'I'll teach the lot, and treat them just the same.'
These differences caused little strife
When first they came to light,
For each of the four founders had
A house in which they might
Take only those they wanted, so,
For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards. Of great cunning, just like him.
And only those of sharpest mind, Were taught by Ravenclaw.
While the bravest and the boldest, Went to daring Gryffindor.
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest, And taught them all she knew.
Thus the houses and their founders
Retained friendships firm and true.
So Hogwarts worked in harmony
For several happy years,
But then discord crept among us
Feeding on our faults and fears.
The houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and,
Divided, sought to rule.
And for a while it seemed the school
Must meet an early end,
What with duelling and with fighting
And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning
When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out
He left us quite downhearted.
And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the houses been united
As they once were meant to be.
And now the Sorting Hat is here
And you all know the score
I sort you into houses
Because that is what I'm for,
But this year I'll go further,
Listen closely to my song
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong,
Though I must fulfil my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether Sorting
May not bring the end I fear.
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
The warning history shows,
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we'll crumble from within
I have told you, I have warned you...
Let the Sorting now begin.
The Hat became motionless once more and applause broke out, though it was punctured, for the first time in Harry's memory, with muttering and whispers. All across the Great Hall students were exchanging remarks with their neighbours.
"Branched out a bit this year, hasn't it?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.
"Too right it has." said Harry.
The Sorting Hat usually confined itself to describing the different qualities looked for by each of the four Hogwarts houses and its own role in Sorting them. Y/n could not remember it ever trying to give the school advice before.
"I wonder if it's ever given warnings before?" said Hermione, sounding slightly anxious.
"Yes, indeed." said Nearly Headless Nick knowledgeably, leaning across Neville towards her, Neville winced, it was very uncomfortable to have a ghost lean through you. "The Hat feels itself honour-bound to give the school due warning whenever it feels..."
But Professor McGonagall, who was waiting to read out the list of first-years' names, was giving the whispering students the sort of look that scorches. Nearly Headless Nick placed a see-through finger to his lips and sat primly upright again as the muttering came to an abrupt end. With a last frowning look that swept the lour house tables, Professor McGonagall lowered her eyes to her long piece of parchment and called out the first name.
"Abercrombie, Euan."
The terrified-looking boy Harry had noticed earlier stumbled forwards and put the Hat on his head, it was only prevented from falling right down to his shoulders by his very prominent ears. The Hat considered for a moment, then the rip near the brim opened again and shouted:
"Gryffindor!"
Y/n clapped loudly with the rest of Gryffindor house as Euan Abercrombie staggered to their table and sat down, looking as though he would like very much to sink through the floor and never be looked at again.
Slowly, the long line of first-years thinned. In the pauses between the names and the Sorting Hat's decisions, Harry could hear Ron's stomach rumbling loudly. Finally, "Zeller, Rose" was Sorted into Hufflepuff, and Professor McGonagall picked up the Hat and stool and marched them away as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.
"To our newcomers." said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips. "Welcome! To our old hands...welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"
There was an appreciative laugh and an outbreak of applause as Dumbledore sat down neatly and threw his long beard over his shoulder so as to keep it out of the way of his plat, for food had appeared out of nowhere, so that the five long tables were groaning under joints and pies and dishes of vegetables, bread and sauces and flagons of pumpkin juice.
"Excellent." said Ron, with a kind of groan of longing, and he seized the nearest plate of chops and began piling them on to his plate, watched wistfully by Nearly Headless Nick.
"What were you saying before the Sorting?" Hermione asked the ghost. "About the Hat giving warnings?"
"Oh, yes." said Nick, who seemed glad of a reason to turn away from Ron, who was now eating roast potatoes with almost indecent enthusiasm.
"For goodness sakes Ron, do you have no etiquette?" Y/n could be heard groaning.
"I have heard the Hat give several warnings before..." Nick continued. "Always at times when it detects periods of great danger for the school. And always, of course, its advice is the same 'stand together, be strong from within.'"
"Ow kunnit nofe skusin danger ifzat?" said Ron.
His mouth was so full Harry thought it was quite an achievement for him to make any noise at all.
"I beg your pardon?" said Nearly Headless Nick politely, while Y/n and Hermione looked revolted. Ron gave an enormous swallow and said. "How can it know if the school's in danger if it's a Hat?"
"I have no idea." said Nearly Headless Nick. "Of course, it lives in Dumbledore's office, so I daresay it picks things up there."
"And it wants all the houses to be friends?" said Harry, looking over at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was holding court. "Fat chance."
'"Well, now, you shouldn't take that attitude." said Nick reprovingly. "Peaceful co-operation, that's the key. We ghosts, though we belong to separate houses, maintain links of friendship. In spite of the competitiveness between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I would never dream of seeking an argument with the Bloody Baron."
"Only because you're terrified of him." said Ron.
Nearly Headless Nick looked highly affronted.
"Terrified? I hope I, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, have never been guilty of cowardice in my life! The noble blood that runs in my veins..."
"What blood?" asked Ron. "Surely you haven't still got..."
"It's a figure of speech!" said Nearly Headless Nick, now so annoyed his head was trembling ominously on his partially severed neck. "I assume I am still allowed to enjoy the use of whichever words I like, even if the pleasures of eating and drinking are denied me! But I am quite used to students poking fun at my death, I assure you!"
"Nick, he wasn't really laughing at you!" said Hermione, throwing a furious look at Ron.
Unfortunately, Ron's mouth was packed to exploding point again and all he could manage was "Node iddum eentup sechew." which Nick did not seem to think constituted an adequate apology. Rising into the air, he straightened his feathered hat and swept away from them to the other end of the table, coming to rest between the Creevey brothers, Colin and Dennis.
"Fantastic...There goes our source of information." Y/n sighed.
'Well done, Ron." snapped Hermione.
"What?" said Ron indignantly, having managed, finally, to swallow his food. "I'm not allowed to ask a simple question?"
"Oh, forget it." said Hermione irritably and returned to her dinner.
When all the students had finished eating and the noise level in the Hall was starting to creep upwards again, Dumbledore got to his feet once more. Talking ceased immediately as all turned to face the Headmaster.
"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices." said Dumbledore. "First-years ought to know that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students...and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too." Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione exchanged smirks.
"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four-hundred-and-sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.
"As if we follow those rules." Y/n scoffed.
"We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons, we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."
There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic applause, during which Harry, Ron. Y/n and Hermione exchanged slightly panicked looks, Dumbledore had not said for how long Grubbly-Plank would be teaching.
Dumbledore continued. "Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the..."
He broke off, looking enquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she was not much taller standing than sitting, there was a moment when nobody understood why Dumbledore had stopped talking, but then Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "Hem, hem." and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.
Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk. Other members of staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Sprout's eyebrows had disappeared into her flyaway hair and Professor McGonagall's mouth was as thin as Y/n had ever seen it. No new teacher had ever interrupted Dumbledore before. Many of the students were smirking, this woman obviously did not know how things were done at Hogwarts.
"Thank you, Headmaster." Professor Umbridge simpered, "For those kind words of welcome."
Her voice was high-pitched, breathy and little girlish. Y/n felt a powerful rush of dislike that he could not explain to himself, all he knew was that he disliked everything about her, from her voice to her fluffy pink cardigan. She gave another little throat-clearing cough and continued.
"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking up at me!"
Y/n glanced around. None of the faces he could see looked happy. On the contrary, they all looked rather taken-aback at being addressed as though they were five years old.
'"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"
Students exchanged looks at this, some of them were barely concealing grins.
"I'll be her friend as long as I don't have to borrow that cardigan." Parvati whispered to Lavender, and both of them lapsed into silent giggles.
Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again, but when she continued, some of the breathiness had vanished from her voice. She sounded much more businesslike and now her words had a dull learned-by-heart sound to them.
"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them for ever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching."
Professor Umbridge paused here and made a little bow to her fellow staff members, none of whom bowed back to her. Professor McGonagall's dark eyebrows had contracted so that she looked positively hawklike, and Y/n distinctly saw her exchange a significant glance with Professor Sprout as Umbridge gave another little 'hem, hem' and went on with her speech.
"Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation..."
Professor Umbridge did not seem to notice the restlessness of her audience. Harry had the impression that a full-scale riot could have broken out under her nose and she would have ploughed on with her speech. The teachers, however, were still listening very attentively, and both Y/n and Hermione seemed to be drinking in every word Umbridge spoke, though, judging by their expression, they were not at all to their tastes.
"...because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognised as errors of judgement. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."
She sat down. Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead, though Y/n noticed that several of them brought their hands together only once or twice before stopping. A few students joined in, but most had been taken unawares by the end of the speech, not having listened to more than a few words of it, and before they could start applauding properly, Dumbledore had stood up again.
"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating." he said, bowing to her. "Now, as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held..."
"Yes, it certainly was illuminating." said Hermione in a low voice.
"You're not telling me you enjoyed it?" Ron said quietly, turning a glazed face towards Hermione. "That was about the dullest speech I've ever heard, and I grew up with Percy."
"I said illuminating, not enjoyable." said Hermione.
"Her certainly speech explained her reason for being here." Y/n then added looking grim.
"Did it?" said Harry in surprise. "Sounded like a load of waffle to me."
"Y/n is right there was some important stuff hidden in the waffle." said Hermione.
"Was there?" said Ron blankly.
"'Progress for progress's sake must be discouraged' and 'pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited' stood out to me.'" Y/n said looking to Umbridge with annoyance.
"Well, what does that mean?" said Ron impatiently.
"I'll tell you what it means." said Hermione through gritted teeth. "It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."
There was a great clattering and banging all around them, Dumbledore had obviously just dismissed the school, because everyone was standing up ready to leave the Hall.
Hermione jumped up, looking flustered. " Ron and I are supposed to show the first-years where to go!"
"Oh yeah." said Ron, who had obviously forgotten. "Hey...hey, you lot! Midgets!"
"Ron!"
"Well, they are, they're titchy..."
"I know, but you can't call them midgets!... First-years!' Hermione called commandingly along the table. "This way, please!"
A group of new students walked shyly up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, all of them trying hard not to lead the group. They did indeed seem very small, Harry was sure he had not appeared that young when he had arrived here. He grinned at them. A blond boy next to Euan Abercrombie looked petrified, he nudged Euan and whispered something in his ear. Euan Abercrombie looked equally frightened and stole a horrified look at Harry who felt the grin slide off his face like Stinksap and then the boys stared at Y/n.
Y/n just rose to his feet now and crossed his arms looking down at the first years who backed away slightly. Y/n then turned his head to Hermione. "I am heading straight to bed, so I will see you in the morning. Sleep well."
Hermione nodded her head. "You too."
Both wanted to kiss the other goodnight but knew that they could not in front of the first years, for it would put a bad impression on Hermione.
"See you later." Harry said dully to Ron and Hermione and both he and Y/n made their way out of the Great Hall, doing everything he could to ignore more whispering, staring and pointing as he passed. Harry kept his eyes fixed ahead as they wove their way through the crowd in the Entrance Hall, then hurried up the marble staircase, took a couple of concealed short cuts and had soon left most of the crowds behind.
Y/n had known this would happen to him and Harry, they had emerged from the Triwizard maze just two months previously clutching the dead body of a fellow student and claiming to have seen Lord Voldemort return to power. There had not been time last term to explain themselves before they'd all had to go home...even if they had felt up to giving the whole school a detailed account of the terrible events in that graveyard. The only people they had talked to about it properly were Hermione and Ron.
They had reached the end of the corridor to the Gryffindor common room and come to a halt in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady before he realised that he did not know the new password.
"Damn...I should have asked Hermione. Y/n said sighing.
"Er..." Harry stammered staring up at the Fat Lady, who smoothed the folds of her pink satin dress and looked sternly back at them.
"No password, no entrance." she said loftily.
"Harry, Y/n, I know it!" Someone panted up behind them and they turned to see Neville jogging towards them. "Guess what it is? I'm actually going to be able to remember it for once..." He waved the stunted little cactus he had shown them on the train. "Mimbuius mimbletonia!"
"Correct." said the Fat Lady, and her portrait swung open towards them like a door, revealing a circular hole in the wall behind, through which Harry, Y/n and Neville now climbed.
The Gryffindor common room looked as welcoming as ever, a cosy circular tower room full of dilapidated squashy armchairs and rickety old tables. A fire was crackling merrily in the grate and a few people were warming their hands by it before going up to their dormitories, on the other side of the room Fred and George Weasley were pinning something up on the noticeboard. Y/n and Harry waved goodnight to them and headed straight for the door to the boys dormitories, neither was in much of a mood for talking at the moment. Neville followed them.
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had reached the dormitory first and were in the process of covering the walls beside their beds with posters and photographs. They had been talking as Harry pushed open the door but stopped abruptly the moment they saw him and Y/n enter.
Harry wondered whether they had been talking about them, then whether he was being paranoid. "Hi." he said, moving across to his own trunk and opening it.
"Hey, Harry, Y/n, Neville." said Dean, who was putting on a pair of pyjamas in the West Ham colours. "Good holidays?"
"Not bad." muttered Harry.
"Hello Dean." Y/n greeted him. "My Holidays were enjoyable, I was able to go and watch one of those football matches you always talk about."
"Oh yeah who'd you go see?" Dean asked him excited that someone in the dorms was showing an interest in his favoured sport.
"I believe it was a team called Arsenal?" Y/n said unsure.
"Pah, everyone chooses Arsenal but just you wait. Once West ham get a couple of signings in we'll be up there." Dean said optimistically
"I see." Y/n said unsure. "Was your holiday enjoyable at least?"
"Yeah, it was ok." chuckled Dean. "Better than Seamus's, anyway, he was just telling me."
"Why, what happened, Seamus?" Neville asked as he placed his Mimbuius mimbletonia tenderly on his bedside cabinet.
Seamus did not answer immediately, he was making rather a meal of ensuring that his poster of the Kenmare Kestrels Quidditch team was quite straight. Then he said, with his back still turned to Harry and Y/n "Me mam didn't want me to come back."
"What?" said Harry, pausing in the act of pulling off his robes.
"She didn't want me to come back to Hogwarts." Seamus turned away from his poster and pulled his own pyjamas out of his trunk, still not looking at Harry or Y/n.
"Why not?" Harry asked. He knew that Seamus's mother was a witch and could not understand, therefore, why she should have come over so Dursleyish.
Seamus did not answer until he had finished buttoning his pyjamas.
"Well." he said in a measured voice. "I suppose...because of you two."
"What do you mean?" said Y/n furrowing his brows.
"Well." said Seamus again, still avoiding Harry and Y/n's eyes. "She...er...well, it's not just you two, it's Dumbledore, too..."
"I gather she has been reading the Daily Prophet then." Y/n said.
"So she thinks I'm a liar, That Y/n's a murderer and Dumbledore's an old fool?" Harry quickly asked.
Seamus looked up at them. "Yeah, something like that."
"Then I suggest you should have her brain tested..." Y/n said beginning to take off his robes.
'"Don't you insult my mother." Seamus snapped.
"Then don't call me a liar or Y/n a murderer." said Harry backing up Y/n.
"Don't talk to me like that!" Seamus shouted at Harry now.
"I'll talk to you how I want." said Harry, his temper rising so fast he snatched his wand back from his bedside table. "If you've got a problem sharing a dormitory with me and Y/n then go and ask McGonagall if you can be moved... stop your mummy worrying..."
"Leave my mother out of this, Potter!" Seamus cried,
"What's going on?" Ron had appeared in the doorway. His wide eyes travelled from Harry, who was kneeling on his bed with his wand pointing at Seamus, to Seamus, who was standing there with his fists raised.
"He's having a go at my mother!" Seamus yelled.
"What?" said Ron. "Harry wouldn't do that...we met your mother, we liked her... "
"That's before she started believing every word the stinking Daily Prophet writes about me and Y/n!" said Harry at the top of his voice.
"Oh." said Ron, comprehension dawning across his freckled face. "Oh...right."
"You know what?" said Seamus heatedly, casting Harry a venomous look. "He's right, I don't want to share a dormitory with them any more, he's mad."
"That's out of order, Seamus." said Ron, whose ears were starting to glow red...always a danger sign.
"Out of order, am I?" shouted Seamus, who in contrast with Ron was going pale. "You believe all the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who, do you, you reckon he's telling the truth?"
"Yeah, I do!" said Ron angrily.
"Then you're mad, too." said Seamus in disgust.
"Yeah? Well, unfortunately for you, pal, I'm also a prefect!" said Ron, jabbing himself in the chest with a finger. "So unless you want detention, watch your mouth!"
Seamus looked for a few seconds as though detention would be a reasonable price to pay to say what was going through his mind, but with a noise of contempt he turned on his heel, vaulted into bed and pulled the hangings shut with such violence that they were ripped from the bed and fell in a dusty pile to the floor. Ron glared at Seamus, then looked at Dean and Neville.
"Anyone else's parents got a problem with Harry and Y/n?" he said aggressively.
"My parents are Muggles, mate." said Dean, shrugging. "They don't know nothing about no deaths at Hogwarts, because I'm not stupid enough to tell them."
"You don't know my mother, she'd weasel anything out of anyone!" Seamus snapped at him. "Anyway, your parents don't get the Daily Prophet. They don't know our Headmaster's been sacked from the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards because he's losing his marbles..."
"My gran says that's rubbish." piped up Neville. "She says it's the Daily Prophet that's going downhill, not Dumbledore." She's cancelled our subscription. "We believe Harry and Y/n." said Neville simply. He climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin, looking owlishly over them at Seamus. "My grans always said You-Know-Who would come back one day. She says if Dumbledore says he's back, he's back."
Y/n who had said nothing as he quietly changed felt a rush of gratitude towards Neville. Nobody else said anything. Seamus got out his wand, repaired the bed hangings and vanished behind them. Dean got into bed, rolled over and fell silent. Neville, who appeared to have nothing more to say either, was gazing fondly at his moonlit cactus.
Harry lay back on his pillows while Ron bustled around the next bed, putting his things away then started to changed
As Y/n climbed into his own bed now he wondered how many more attacks like Seamus's he and Harry would have to endure before that time came that everyone knew that truth.
Ron got into bed and extinguished the last candle in the dormitory. Y/n ran his hands over his face and decided it was time to sleep.
